Nurse With Wound - Sugar Fish Drink (A Layman's Guide To Cod Surrealism) FLAC download

Closing out a period of relative musical inactivity (behind the scenes, at least) with a compilation, Steven Stapleton pieced together the bulk of his non-album recordings from 1987-1991 together as Sugar Fish Drink (the remaining tracks from this era would end up on similar compilations in the following years).The 'Cooloorta Moon' 12" appears in full, with the daft fun of the title track - a ridiculous bossa nova-esque number with swanee whistle and sax solos - opening things here, and is demented, atonal cousin 'A Piece of the Sky is Missing' appearing later on. 'I am the Poison', Stapleton's first full collaboration with Tony Wakeford, who appears on vocals and bass, flies in from the Soresucker EP (thankfully, 'Journey Through Cheese' does not.) It's a moody song with more than a touch of post-punk, and closer to some of the late '80s Current 93 material than anything else in the NWW catalogue.'Swamp Rat', from the ultra-limited Drunk With the Old Man of the Mountains album, is one of Stapleton's exercises in noise and percussion. The lush backing drones make this more interesting than some percussive Nurse tracks, and the laughter from NWW classic 'Registered Nurse' makes a welcome appearance, but overall the track becomes tiresome long before it ends. 'Nil by Mouth', loosely subtitled 'Homotopy to Marie Pt 2', according to the etching on the original Alas the Madonna Does Not Function 12", is definitely closer to the abstract sound collages of that iconic album than anything else from this era of Nurse With Wound, with an array of sounds, noises, wails and clatters appearing between periodic violent thuds. The remix of 'Brained' that closes the album is an oddity that blurs all the elements of the original into a strange unfocused mess.The 17 minute track 'Creakiness', NWW's side of a split with Spasm, is the real highlight here. A return of sorts to the Sylvie & Babs approach of utter madness, 'Creakiness' begins with a cut-up sound collage of effects, noises and voices from Warner Bros cartoons. The whole thing is the wonderful sort of lunacy that only Steven Stapleton would try, and once a rhythmic loop starts up with Roadrunner's 'meep' as the snare, the track becomes utterly hysterical. Manic, high-pitch organ music and the creaks of the piece's title soon start up, followed by Joolie Wood's violin and singing, turning the whole affair into a rather unsettling lullaby. Stapleton is also credit as playing a 'sheep ventilator'. No idea.Despite being recorded over a relatively short period of time, the material on Sugar Fish Drink is surprisingly varied, to the extent that it doesn't hang together anywhere near as well as similar compilations such as Large Ladies and A Missing Sense. One thing the tracks do all have in common is a certain intensity: very little silence or space is utilised on these seven tracks, with everything on the go all the way through. With most of these tracks originally intended for 12"s, this does make it a heavy going listen throughout. Yet, despite this, there is enough superb material here to make the album worth more than a cursory glance.

I was swept off my feet the first time I ever heard nurse with wound. Cooloorta Moon Was the first song I'd ever heard. Whimsical and playful was this track It reminded me of being a little kid with a wild imagination.